vol.25

i heart tjmaxx

hello! How are things going for all of you? I hope well. The weather here has been very odd, but I am enjoying it. I have never been much of a winter person, but I do generally manage to enjoy fall. :) Well, this year is no exception! Mine and Jaydon's 5 year anniversary is next month, and I am super excited about that!

BUT... anyhow onto the title of my post... why I love tjmaxx. I can always find super nifty deals for the home. :) I have been on a hunt for a new comforter for quite awhile now, and finally found the perfect duvet cover at tjmaxx just yesterday!

I love love it to pieces, the only thing I am worried about is how long the color will stay this bright white. :) BUT, it is a duvet, so I can always throw it in the washer. { I apologize if the wrinkles hurt your eyes... I admit to never ironing my cloth napkins, clothes, or anything else that happens to need it. ;) }

WARNING: The wrinkles are VERY obvious in the picture below... you may want to scroll past it... :)
The colors in this really went GREAT with the rest of the room, and I stole that brown pillow from the living room couch. It was originally purchased from pier1 last fall. Oh! That brings me to another project that has been running through my mind... updating the living room colors/theme. I have been checking out hotels in Seattle for mine and jaydons potential anniversary trip, and fell in love with the colors in a few of the more modern hotels. .. grey and orange. This particular hotel (hotel max) is completely inspired by art, and I would love to stay here! note: I havent decided on the exact color of orange just yet... but maybe a little brighter then the rust color seen here.

I have been seeing a bunch more orange lately, and I think fall has more then likely sprung that trend... but nonetheless I love it! Of course, I am talking only changing it by bringing in oranges as accent colors, pillows, and art, maybe a few other pieces... but painting the walls grey is an idea I would love to see follow through.

Oh- and here is some pictures of the shelves in our room. I rearranged things again, and also found all of my vintage cameras in a box outside in the garage. :) yay!! (psstt: They are inspiring a new print)

...and one more thing, I recently had a request for more boys themed art... and I am granting that request! I currently have 2 space themed prints and also 2 circus prints waiting to be colored. I am excited about finishing them up, but have been busy working on christmas cards! Yep, I already have three finished. I'll give you a sneak peek at my newest one...

We made a trip to bestbuy over the weekend, and bought 2gigs of extra ram for my computer. Something it was DESPERATELY needing. :) It sped up my computer like something fierce, and I am enjoying it taking less then half the time it used to take to finish up a piece of art. Which has finally allowed me the time I needed to finish up my very own scrapbook paper, for Journey's mini monthly scrapbook...

Here they are printed, I love how they turned out! Of course I am coordinating these with some bright colored cardstock as seen here.

I have some little sketches drawn out on graph paper, which will really speed up the creating process. I'll be sure and include a scanned copy for your own use in the next week. :)

Well, thats my update for this beautiful thursday! I hope everyone has had a great week!

I am loving this today

Remember the bathroom remodel we started a couple months back? Well its still not finished, but it hasnt kept me from "monitor shopping" for new ideas. I came across these wall flats from design public. I LOVE them! Texture like this is great, and completely unexpected on a wall. There are SO many different textures, its hard to choose just one. This particular style is called "Shangri La" and it matches the sheets we have in our bedroom perfectly.

Here is what design public has to say about the wall flats;

"Inhabit's Embossed Wall Flats are designed to expand in any direction. With peel-and-stick adhesive tape and an automatic pattern repeat these wall tiles are simple, modern, versatile and goof-proof. You can cover an existing wall, help disguise a not-so-smooth wall or add a modern pattern to any room setting.

Customize them by rotating every other tile or row, mix-and-match patterns or paint them to coordinate with your decor. The rule is there are no rules and the important thing is to have fun with it. It¹s low stress, low commitment and a big payoff in the way these tiles will impact a space."

I love that they are paintable too.. it seems like the possibilities really are endless. If you are not covering a real large area, the prices seem reasonable. Definitely perfect for an accent wall. I am not sure if I could afford this for the living room (as much as I want to) with our super high ceilings and all... but the bathroom would be just perfect. Oh, and maybe some for my laundry room too. The only thing I wonder is, how hard would it be to hang artwork on a super textured wall? Has anyone used these before?

odda wardrobe update...

Here is another post that I have been meaning to get around to posting for way too long now. Remember back when I posted about how excited I was to cover the odda wardrobe from ikea with vinyl decals? Well, I finally decided on a set I really really wanted. oneupdesigns on etsy has been in my favorites for almost a year now, so I immediately went there for inspiration/ideas, and The perched wall decal really seemed perfect.

Although I could choose two colors, one for the lines, and one for the birds... I decided to stick with black for both. I plan to accent with maybe some pink or brown mini hearts above the birds. I just cant seem to stay away from hearts... :) I think it will add a little playfullness, and make them appear a little more childlike. Although, I really need to take a better more recent picture, here is how the wardrobe currently looks in Trins room.



and here is a little mini mock-up I did to check the dimensions and sizing...


I managed to do this with just one set/order of decals...but I needed them to be just a little longer in order to make it work like above. I sent James an etsy conversation, asking him how much extra he would charge me to make them a little longer... and he was so nice about it. He told me I wasnt needing them longer enough, to worry about charging me extra. :) Yay! I was so glad I had asked. I just received an e-mail notification letting me know my order had shipped via fedex, so it looks like I will be testing my mathematical skills very soon. I sure hope I managed to calculate this right. Guess we will see. :)

weekend warriors... kinda sorta

Our plans for the weekend... are exciting! Well, I think they are... my dad and husband may think otherwise. Simply because they are doing all the work, well I guess thats not entirely true. Let me explain, when we moved into our humble abode little over a year ago, one of the top things on our "list of things to do" was to brainstorm another way into our only bathroom. Currently you must go through our bedroom to get to the bathroom, ( I must admit though it has trained me to make my bed every morning) and this as you can imagine is not the most comfortable situation for our company. For over a year we have friends and family very graciously deal with this situation... but finally finally... we will no longer have to deal with this!

 

Tonight Jaydon is going to start tearing a hole into our bathroom wall, a few doors will be moved, and our master bathroom will now be a super master bathroom. I am also excited to finally get a linen closet out of the deal. woohoo, the simple pleasures in life. I will be sure and post some pictures come monday/tuesday of the work in progress. I am sure it will take a little longer then a day and a half to complete.

please excuse my dingy towel, I am afraid my favorite towel is a little stained. :)

So my earlier comment about them doing most of the work, well... my dad is getting some homemade lasagna out of the deal (his favorite) and Jaydon is getting his absolute favorite dessert, 2 of his mom's vanilla creme pies, made by yours truly. :) Hope you all have a great weekend planned.

Our bedroom as promised...

Well, here it is. Pictures of the bedroom! It didnt turn out exactly as I had hoped... We ran into a couple of problems. First, ikea quit selling the Jarpen joining brackets to the shelves I had picked out. So, making the shelf continue through was not possible. Second, since our super old home has mortar walls, we had to mount strictly into studs... and the studs weren't in the most ideal places. But, my super handy husband still managed to make them work. While I am not really really happy with the results, I do like the change to the bedroom. This is what my sketch initially looked like.

and this is how it turned out.....

I have thought about maybe including some wall decals to help blend the shelves together somehow? Not 100 percent sure what I will do, or if I will even change it all. :) I did order some super cute ceramic figurines from therunnybunny. It was SO hard to decide between all the little creatures she has listed in her shop. I will be sure and fill you in on which ones I chose, when they arrive. :) I can hardly wait! Their new homes will be on these shelves. I have also been considering purchasing some new sheets. It is so nice to change the entire look of a room by just changing the sheets!

Here are some additional pictures of the bedroom.

The print finished, and the r spray painted. :)

So there you have it, one more completed project to mark off the to do list! :) yay!! Did everyone have a great weekend? We did! we had a nice BBQ at our house yesterday. My brother and his wife came down for fathers day. Saturday they spent the day traveling with my parents to silverdale, wa. My brother is adding another landcruiser to the family. They purchased this black beauty in silverdale at a steal of a deal. It needs a TON of work, but between the four of them, they managed to get it running yesterday. The guys spent the day looking it over, and trying to fix whatever was wrong with it. They had to push it up the trailer to get it home... so when they got it running it was a mild victory for them.  :) In this picture you can see all 3 of them, my dad's is on the left, and Jaydons is in the background to the right.

Roman is planning to get personalized plates that read "grrrr." Well, we had to tease him. I mean, the thing wouldnt even stay running. So, we made a sign that read "meow" with "grr" printed on the back for future use. :) Isnt it cute?

and, by the end of the day... it was purring like a kitten, with a SUPER loud bark. Cherry bombs really are loud!

Anyhow, enough boring you with technical stuff.... :) If you made it all the way through this post, congrats. You deserve a cookie... and maybe a glass of milk too!

finished...

Here it is! Took a bit to tweak the colors just right... but I really like how it looks. It matches our room pretty good I think. Will be sure and post pictures when I have a little better lighting. Of course, this can easily be changed to fit any happy couple... and I intend to do that next, so I can list it in the shop. Any suggestions for the text? A quote? Maybe a saying? Or just a simple heart?

-oh you may notice the addition of the birds to the sketch below... :)

our bedroom in progress

Hi everyone, here is a super quick peak at the bedroom shelves I mentioned last week. The R is handmade by me. Completely out of cardboard. :) It was definitely affordable. I actually made two... but I still need to finish spray painting. I got the first coat on before calling it an evening.

Here is what I am working on to fill the empty frame on the top right of the shelf. I was so excited when the idea came to me. I wasnt really sure exactly how I was going to go about doing it... so I sketched out a few different ways. I think I like the birch trees in the bottom left best. But, I think I will do several and make  a little series out of them for the shop. I thought it would even be neat to offer these as a customized print. Either with your initials, or a message. I am not sure if it would be worth my time to customize them though. Especially with a new baby on the way. Maybe for 35.00? But, then would anyone want to pay that much? I guess its something I need to think about.

Well, anyhow I am going to ink over these lines.... and see if I cant get this done today. Would love to hang it in our room tonight!

Finally....

Yay! My ikea shoe cabinets are finally installed, my favorite silhouette picture is hung, and I can now "feel" like I have somewhat of an entry area to call my own. No more piled shoes by the front door, and I can reclaim some of the space in the closet. My husband seems to have a problem getting rid of shoes, (more so then me) once they start getting wore out enough he wont wear them out, he wears them as work shoes. How many pairs of work shoes can one guy own? Apparently a ton. :) I have to hand it to him, he is very resourceful. My problem is convincing him that once he wont wear them as work shoes anymore, I certainly do not need them taking up precious space in my 996 sq. ft home. :)

Anyhow... here it is finished. Well, almost finished. We do still have some tile for the entry there, waiting to be laid. Which will really help my entry feeling feel a little more entry-esh. :)

 

That letter R was purchased from pottery barn (on clearance!) I plan to paint it a funky color, but for now the gold matches the yellow field in the photo above it. It was originally intended for our bedroom, but while waiting for the jarpen shelves to be installed, it found a new home right there. :) I got a little creative and made my own R for the bedroom.  Jaydon hung the shelves in the bedroom yesterday, and has the lighting "almost" completely installed. I am printing pictures for the photographs, and hope to complete it all by monday. So, a post for the bedroom to come soon. :)

Here is "we are shaped by our thoughts" framed. The frame is from ikea, and for such a large frame was SUPER reasonable. I think like 20.00? The largest I can print on my printer is 13x19, and that wasn't quite large enough for this frame. So, I printed it on 13x19 glossy photo paper, and cut it out with a pair of scissors, flipped the white paper (that said the name/size) and taped the silhouette to that. I was pretty proud of myself. :) You really cant tell it was cut unless your really looking.... I explained to Jaydon my act of creativeness as he was installing the cabinets, he hadnt even noticed. Even though I had done it about a month ago! Of course he is "just a guy." ;)

So, there is "my entry." I hope you enjoyed the photos!!

pier 1 inspiration...

Pier 1 never stops giving me inspiration. It has become one of my favorite stores in the Tri-Cities. I can never leave the store without picking something up... well I guess I have had to before. But I really regretted it! Came back the moment I had the money and bought what I had to leave behind. :)



This gorgeous piece of inspiration was delivered to my inbox this morning. What immediately caught my eye, was the plates. That lemon plate and the green and yellow sliced citrus plates would complement my new kitchen series prints perfectly! The mysterious other print I happened to be working on is centered around a pitcher of lemonade... perfect!! :) This is giving me the inspiration to finish it up today.

Of course my kitchen walls are painted an aloe vera color, which really is a super pale green. I still like it, but just yesterday Jaydon told me he would agree to me painting the kitchen a bright green. ( I told you I have a problem with green, Of course I became somewhat obesessed after seeing this scotland isle green in a flickr contacts dining room. I have been begging him to let me paint an accent wall in the living room this particular green for a few weeks now. So, I guess I will take what I can get... :) )

Anyhow, these really are sweet and I have wanted to get a small collection of plates ever since Holly over at decor8 blogged about an easy way to hang plates. I have a TON of free space above my kitchen cabinets, and while I am not one for adding a bunch of clutter that constantly needs dusted, I do need something up there! :) I may have to sit down and do some sketches. That always helps to make my ideas a little more reality. Does anyone have any plates hung in their kitchen? There are sooo many stylish plates available now. I always fall in love with the cheap melamine ones at target. Too many cute styles!

Well, there you have it... now you know what my current dose of inspiration is feeding from for the day. :)

p.s. our table and Jaydon's laz-boy recliner came in over the weekend! I am so excited to get the table put up, BUT we still need to sell my parents' table. It is listed on craigslist, and cant sell quick enough! :) We have 8 counter height chairs scattered all throughout the house, and a HUGE box leaned against the wall in my kitchen.

check it out!

I am so glad I listed these prints yesterday, "is tomorrows wish" made it to the etsy homepage today. Resulting in at least one sale, a bunch of views and a TON of hearts! I think it blended great with the other etsy items chosen. :)

Its been awhile since I have posted pictures of any interior updates (aside from trins room) Now that Jaydon is back from his trip, we are focusing on getting things done around the house before baby arrives. Not that this is a priority... but he finally installed my ikea booklighting! I purchased them on our way back from Oklahoma at the ikea in salt lake city. They came in a pack of 3... but I am wondering if three is a bit much for the narrow bookcase. I will probably end up taking off the middle light. I am also still unsure about the arrangement on the top shelf. I think it is a but cluttered... and I am brainstorming new ideas already! I really want to incorporate and start collecting vintage house numbers into my living room. Aside from ebay, does anyone have any online resources for these? Also, noticing there really isnt a need for a lamp over there anymore. I am sure I can find a much more needed place for that lamp....

There are so many other projects in the works! I have a design sketched out for our bedroom, but that will have to wait another week. I did finally take a picture of that new light though...

Also getting ready to update this art corner in my living room. See that silhouette print on the very bottom? That was the beginning of the silhouette prints. When I brought them back and listed them into vol.25 they received an update! :) Of course the one on top is new,  and was just recently added. :) The new butterfly picture I spoke of earlier... definitely going into this space!

Well, thats it for now. I have some errands to run, should start thinking about dinner... and straightening up my house before Jaydon comes home. I wouldnt want him thinking I did nothing all day long... ;)